Batman: Streets of Gotham #5 Review

A stellar Manhunter back-up redeems a lackluster fill-in feature.

Batman: Streets of Gotham is an odd and increasingly frustrating new series. The book boasts an impressive creative team and a promising premise, but has yet to gain any momentum or establish a real focus or identity. Now, as was the case recently with Gotham City Sirens, regular writer Paul Dini's name is curiously absent from this latest issue, and we're given a fill-in installment from Chris Yost at a time when the series should be hitting its stride. Like I said – odd and increasingly frustrating.

The good news is that broad concept (and the lack of focus I mentioned earlier) means the book lends itself well to guest writers and fill-in stories. This is, after all, a series about the entirety of Gotham City, meaning it shouldn't be too much of a problem or stretch to move away from Paul Dini's regular plot threads for a look over at some other murky corner of Batman's hometown. Also, Dustin Nguyen remains as the series' penciller, giving the issue a visual consistency that's rare among fill-in work.

The bad news is that Yost falls into a trap common to both new and old Batman writers alike – he over-writes the hell out of the issue. For some reason, certain writers can't seem to help themselves when it comes to writing first person narration for a member of the Bat-family, providing the character's reactions to and descriptions of unfolding events despite the fact that we're watching those events unfold.

Over and over and time and again in the course of Huntress' narration of this issue, Yost is for some reason compelled to hit us over the head with the following notions: 1) Huntress is really annoyed and tired of fighting Man-Bat across Gotham; 2) she really wishes she could use lethal force; and 3) Batman and Oracle don't approve of her tactics. It's extremely tiresome, and I can't help but wonder whether I would have enjoyed this issue more had Yost left Nguyen alone to tell the Huntress sequences silently. It wouldn't have made for much of a story, but it would have been more enjoyable than listening to Huntress ramble on.

Luckily there are a few more redeeming aspects of the issue. When he's not busy over-writing his Huntress/Man-Bat fight, Yost does take time to introduce a fascinating exploration of how the horrors of Gotham can wear on even the most faithful, well-meaning of people. In this case, we're shown a young priest's disturbing psychotic breakdown in the face of Gotham's typical brand of everyday disasters.

But more importantly, the issue's back-up Manhunter feature is alone almost enough to make up for the main feature's shortcomings. In that regard, Batman: Streets of Gotham #5 is a shining example of why this dual-feature format can work well in the right hands. Writer Marc Andreyko and artist Jeremy Haun tell an entertaining, well-paced history of Dylan Battles, former tech-guru to the DCU's villains, that's punctuated by a brutal and unexpected late twist. It's by far the highlight of the issue and the best back-up I've read so far, making me glad these second features exist.